


melody calling

by kingdavidbowie



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: F/M, High School AU, M/M, everyone's sort of a punk, loki and sweaters, track captain/discus-throwing/school treasurer steve rogers, transgender pepper potts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-01
Updated: 2014-08-01
Packaged: 2018-02-10 23:40:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2044581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingdavidbowie/pseuds/kingdavidbowie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>High school AU in which Loki wears hoodies, Clint wears combat boots and Pepper has immaculate taste in music) Also in which Loki has a song for planning to take over the world, Clint has a song for saving it and Steve is a champion discus thrower)</p>
            </blockquote>





	melody calling

Clint doesn't know Loki something-or-other very well. To be more precise, nobody does, but that's because he's Loki. The adopted hoodie-adorned brother of Thor, who is the opposite of his brother in this respect and is known by everyone, considering the fact that he's the one guy on their school's hockey team that can actually get a goal. Nobody pays much attention to the fact that he can't skate for shit; maybe they notice it about as much as they do Loki.

He usually gets through the time before school starts by sitting in the hall with his sweatshirt hood darkening as much of his face as he can make it, and if that weren't enough indication of his desire not to be engaged in any sort of conversation there are the wires falling out of the hood's opening and crisscrossing across his torso, hooking up headphones to iPod to any song that's never been on the radio. He usually gets by because nobody would see him like this and want to screw with him. Not personally. But today he doesn't have as much luck as he usually does, or, at least, that's what Clint figures. Of course, he doesn't know anything about Loki. But the guy sure as hell looks like he wants to be left alone. 

But Tony is being adamant with him. "You were the one who said you wouldn't mind having a date to my party," he points out as they're walking down the hall. He gestures with his hands too much when he talks, Clint thinks. "And I got Natasha to ask you and everything-- you should be thanking me!"

"Except for the part where I don't like girls," Clint supplies, and his friend just tosses him a screwed-up oddball of an expression. "I guess that wasn't great timing?" he takes, examining the ink stains on his hand from being written on yesterday. He'd stop doing that eventually, or when he saw someone die of ink poisoning.

Tony's shakes his head. "No, no, it was _brilliant_ , Clint. She wasn't even surprised and it was great! She didn't even get angry and judo chop anyone! It was the best coming-out ever, I assure you. What about Bruce?" he continues as they move on, nodding towards the mentioned male. 

"What about him?"

"You know him?"

"Um, we were lab partners in biology," Clint offers. "But there's that whole academic bowl thing tonight that he's probably doing, so..." Also, Bruce looks too virginal for one of Tony Stark's parties; Clint really doesn't want to be the one to corrupt such an innocent-looking face.

"Coulson?"

And there's the opposite. "Scares the crap out of me," he finishes for Tony as they pass. "Tell me again why we need hall monitors?" There's no answer for that, of course.

"Loki." When Tony says it, there's not a question mark at the end so much as a comma, a hyphen-- something to come that he's waiting on for from Clint. It's a sentence Clint wouldn't have even thought of finishing a few months ago, but now that he's gotten to know Tony things are different, he figures. Yeah, a few people know his whole homosexual deal now, but, aside from that, and even from hanging out with Tony more often, after the whole thing with Pepper he figures he can trust the guy at least a little more than he would have before.

To explain it all rather quickly, there had been a few people/dicks who had decided that it was gross/sinful/something for Tony to be going on a first date with Pepper Potts, whom the dicks/people had decided couldn't be considered an actual girl if she hadn't been born one. It went over quite well, actually, in Clint's opinion. With the date going great and with three people/dicks fallen on their butts out in the school courtyard with bleeding noses after getting socked by Stark. It'd taken a considerable amount of time for the school board to settle on Tony only getting two days suspension and the others getting the worse end of the stick, so it's only this week that Tony's back in school for a full week without any punishment left on his shoulders. Anyway, his freedom warrants a Friday-night party, in his own opinion anyway, so he makes it happen.

And then Clint has to open his mouth, and things just get-- not really worse, per say. Just more messy, when what he prefers is for things to be clean and pointed-- neat. So when Natasha had asked him to Tony's party he'd at least been straight about his feelings. Just not in the straight-straight sense. So when Tony says Loki's name, Clint doesn't immediately reject the idea because maybe it's not entirely a horrible one?

Then again, maybe it is. He swears he can hear screaming voices coming out of what are probably headphones inside of the guy's hood. Not that Clint minds that sort of music. It's just not the most helpful thing when he's trying to slow his beating heart and figure out what the hell he's doing. What also doesn't help is that when he pauses Tony doesn't give him time to hesitate and instead plows straight ahead in his friend's place, dragging Clint by the arm behind him to Loki's adopted corner of the science wing.

"Excuse me." Tony stops directly over the poor guy so that his shadow is keeping Loki shaded from the light even when his hood falls back when he looks up. "My friend and I were wondering if you were available tonight to come to a party." After a second he adds, "Also, if you wanted to be my gay friend's date that'd be great, too." He steps aside and shoves a mildly-- no, a mediumly mortified Clint in Loki's general direction. He's not completely embarrassed but the way his feet are shaking in his combat boots is pretty damn awkward. Until he looks down at Loki's face anyway, and sees it for the first time, sees him, and things aren't as awkward as they were a second before. 

"I'd like to apologize for that," Clint says, because his mouth is already open and has been for who knows how long, so he might as well say something. He almost sighs in relief when Loki doesn't take out a bladed weapon when he sits up against the white-painted brick wall.

"Okay," he says simply. His fingers waver over the earbuds in his lap that he's taken out as if that's all he has to say and well he wants to go back to listening to screamo now before class starts and he'll get called out on doing it in class. The weird thing is that he doesn't look drugged out or tired or anything like maybe expected; if anything, he looks pretty zen, all things considered, when Clint really looks at his face for the first time.        

He thinks that those are some really damn nice eyes and if "Okay" doesn't mean what he hopes it does then if he could just see those eyes one more time before he graduates he'll be set for life. But then Loki goes, seeing that he's still being stared down by two juniors a year older than him, "I take it you want my number?" and why does he sound like a character from a novel written at least sixty years ago? Clint wonders just a bit desperately. Of course, on the outside he's still totally keeping his cool and rocking the brand-less purple t-shirt and thrift-shop jeans, because that's what Clint Bartons are designed for, he figures. That, and summer archery camps. 

So he coolly nods in answer to the question; only, for about ten seconds the three of them are just standing/sitting there as he nods until Tony says, "Here, have a pen!" and almost stabs Loki in the eye tossing it to him except that the guy has a nice catch, or, at least, a little good luck. Loki gets to his feet in what's really a pretty graceful movement, and then there's this abrupt thing that happens and he's holding onto Clint's bowstring-pulling arm and writing numbers there and then he's not and Clint's arm feels colder. 

Without anything else he can think to say, Clint goes, "I'd also like to apologize for the future," because he already knows it's going to go badly tonight and Loki's already walking away with his bag slung over one shoulder. But before he passes Clint sees the skin around the outsides of his eyes crinkle like he's kind of smiling, and maybe that's a good omen, he thinks. 

Then Tony's talking again and Clint's mortified inside, but it's a good feeling, at least, in that it's an honest one.

"I kind of want to get this permanently tattooed on my arm," Clint says, looking down at the elegant script in question. 

Tony glances over. "I don't blame you in the slightest, Clint."

\--

Tony picks Clint up after the archer/discus tosser's finished with track practice and they hit the gas station for drinks. After filling up the tank of Tony's much-too-expensive car with medium-ly premium gas they end up in front of the store's refrigerator doors, standing side by side. They ponder their options with the appropriate seriousness, of course.

"It was easy in middle school," Tony says, giving the fridge doors more nostalgia in his stare than usual. 

"Root beer and Mountain Dew," Clint finishes, understanding immediately and sharing in his friend's deep pain. "And now we have, what--"

"In addition to changing taste buds and the introduction of diet and clear soda into our teenage lives--"

"Things I've never even heard of!" He gets closer to the glass so that his breath is fogging it up as he talks. "I mean, what the hell is that one? Green-colored Coca-Cola? That doesn't even make--" 

"Excuse me," an older woman says from behind them, and they both step aside for a moment to let her through.

"What kind do you think Loki likes?" Clint asks in somewhat of a whisper, tossing the twelve-can boxes another significant look. Tony just shrugs.

"I don't know, Monster energy?"

"Dammit, Tony, you're the one who got me involved in this thing; you could at least help--" Clint starts, but Tony cuts him off by pushing two fingers up against the other boy's lips and capturing Clint's gaze with his own steady one.

"I'm with you, Clint," he says seriously, withdrawing his fingers so that they're falling back on the fridge door handle. "But I honestly have no likely-accurate theories as to what--"

Abruptly, he shushes Clint again and mutters a curse, drawing back against the fridge doors. When his friend starts to ask what the hell he's doing Tony just stays where he is without clarifying for a long moment, and it's just when he opens his mouth to explain that Clint realizes and turns around to see Steve Rogers approaching the refrigerator section.

"Question--" Tony murmurs, "--am I invisible?"

"Not in the slightest," Clint says in a pleasant tone, then steps back and tips an invisible hat towards their school's ultimate frisbee/discus-throwing champion, who is still wearing his track uniform from practice and still skin-soaked in sweat. The track captain returns with a nod to his teammate and then settles himself standing across the aisle from Tony, who is still frozen in place against the freezer doors. Clint contemplates the odds of his friend being able to accurately grab a random two boxes and run while still getting an alright drink selection. Not very high, he thinks.

"About our science fair project--" Steve says to Tony, and Clint internally winces. But it can't have gotten a bad grade, they'd only gotten second place to Bruce Banner. So-- "We got an A." He says it like he's announcing an impending funeral or answering a question in precalculus. 

Tony's body is caving in around the middle like it'll help him to at least get another inch and a half away from Steve. "That's lovely," he manages, and Steve nods, still stonily stoic.

"I'll see you," he says finally before walking off to the section of the convenience store with all the nutritious health bars, out of sight after a few moments. Clint and Tony watch his retreating back and then, soundlessly, remove from the fridge shelves the first boxed beverages their hands find and take them over to the check-out counter. As the man there takes out his scanner, Clint adds a bag of Skittles to the pile of items.

"Is he alright?" the employee asks him, meaning Tony.

"He had a run-in with his track captain/school treasurer/frisbee-throwing ex-boyfriend," Clint supplies, his voice lowered slightly. "He'll be good when he gets some Skittles in him," he assures the man, who nods after a second. Clint respects that he doesn't laugh, taking the serious in all its necessary seriousness. 

And Tony is better ten minutes later. Just a little mentally scarred, still, from previous relationships that he doesn't speak of anymore. Except maybe for sometimes during the night, on the phone with Pepper or Clint.

\--

Clint's glad that Pepper's in charge of music only partly because of her immaculate taste; the other half of it is that the last time he and Tony had tried to organize a playlist they'd ended up with two songs on repeat, one each of which the other couldn't stand to listen to. So it's a good thing that she comes early because of that. Also because she knows a lot more about dating boys/people than Tony does, even though it's true that he's more experienced.

After Tony explains Clint's whole dealie to her she just says, though, "Clint, I don't think you need any tips for whatever it is that you're trying to do-- considering you have no idea what that is." Which is true. "Just stop shaking in your boots and don't freak out on us." Which is probably good advice, but it's not really getting through to his brain. Seeing this, Pepper removes herself from the seat next to Tony and stands up in front of Clint, pressing her palms up against the sides of his face.

"Hello," he mumbles, and she just rolls her eyes.

"Relax, Clint. Imaginary bow and arrow-- you have to be calm to shoot it, right?" She's talking right into his ear and it's sort of awkward but it works, anyway. "Breathe in, breathe out--" Then the doorbell rings and Clint jumps and Tony just sighs and says, "I'll get it." Clint moves as if to hide behind Pepper or Clint but doesn't actually get anywhere.

But it's not Loki, so he manages to fix himself again in a moment and look like he's feeling casual. 

"This song is kind of perfect," Rhodey says a second after stepping through the open door, ignoring Tony to look over his shoulder at Pepper. "What song is this?"

"'Teenage Icon'," she answers promptly, still cautiously looking at Clint as if she's not entirely sure he's not going to waver and fall over. "The Vaccines. You brought the snacks, right?" They always talk like that, Clint thinks. Without sparing a single word.

Rhodey snorts. "Of course I did-- nobody else does, do they?"

"True," Pepper agrees.

"Is that-- Squirt? You bought Squirt as a party beverage, Tony? Are you raving mad or just--"

The bell rings again and Clint jumps and Tony thinks out loud that maybe he'll just have it removed so that people will be forced to knock, which is maybe slighty less jarring? (He ignores Rhodey's comment; Pepper's already on it.) Shrugging, he opens up the door again and the first thing that comes out of his mouth is, "Thank god you're not Loki; Clint's freaking out, I can tell. It's in his--"

Only, Natasha is raising her eyebrows at him because she's not standing on the doorstep of Tony's too-expensive house alone, it turns out.

"--eyes," Tony finishes in a mumble, then says to Loki, "That's a nice sweater," because he's never seen him in anything other than a hoodie before and he doesn't even look that awkward in a sweater, which is pretty good accomplishment, he figures. 

Loki's eyes twinkle and pretty much everyone in the room instantly wishes the hood was back because they're freaking distracting. But the only one who's caught off guard for more than a moment by his appearance is Clint, so it's not difficult for him to integrate himself into the group, at least. The paused conversation in Tony's living room starts up again and Loki formally introduces himself to Natasha (who out-Lokis his punkness by a long shot with a single handshake) and Rhodey (who is both suspicious of his newcomer-ness and friendly but also confused as to why the hell he's here; he doesn't ask) and Pepper, who kindly informs him that if he doesn't like the music then he can feel free to leave. It really is in somewhat of a nice way; it's just her grip on his hand that's a little tight, maybe.

At the end of the line they make up Loki ends up standing next to Clint, where the rest of Clint's friends are pointedly not watching them and watching them at the same time while they talk to each other. Clint takes a breath and then determines that he's not going to lose his cool over some guy he doesn't even know well yet. And then he's okay, for the most part.

"I'd also like to apologize for not warning you that they're worse than me," he says, eyeing the rest of them, and Loki does his not-really-smiling-quite-yet thing again.

"I apologize for not being early," he answers, straightening the bottom hem of his sweater.

"It really is sort of a boss sweater," Clint blurts. "Like, you make wool look pretty punk, you know?" Dear lord, Clint can't even keep from internally laughing at himself. He saves that last sentence in one of his mind's file cabinets as something to remember later. Maybe to make him laugh again. Maybe to cry-- one of those.

"You make indie music sound pretty punk," Loki counters, naming the song playing, and "pretty punk" on his lips sounds like he's trying to talk in a different language with his own even vernacular. Clint opens his mouth to answer with something equally awkward, but Pepper's already interrupting as soon as Loki recognizes the song and asking him what music he likes and her whirlwinds just leave Clint in her wake standing next to Tony again, who's also been abruptly abandoned.

"Maybe you guys can all date him instead of me," he says after a few moments of both of them watching. "It'd come easier, don't you think?" And Tony doesn't even shake his head immediately; he just tilts it in consideration and then says that that's probably true but he isn't as polyamorous as his girlfriend is capable of being. Clint sighs and tries not to shake in his combat boots.

Imaginary bow. Imaginary arrow. He sort of wants to shoot himself with it in the imagination.

\--

Finally he just steps outside into Tony's expansive yard to take a break from the world of indie and alternative and listen to the crickets. He can't really say much about it except that there must be a hell of a lot of them out there. Just a minute passes.

"Am I interrupting?" Loki inquires-- he doesn't ask, he really does inquire\-- and settles his elbows on the bars on the sides of the Starks' porch next to Clint. Who shakes his head in answer.

"I'm usually much more interesting than this," he says, then regrets it. "I mean, it wasn't really my idea to do-- that, you  know--" It's just worse, that Loki isn't cutting in and is only raising his neat, dark eyebrows, and by the slightest degree. "Loki?"

"Hm?" If he can get the guy to be less sparse with his words than Pepper and Rhodey he'll be overjoyed.

"I'm Clint. I don't think I said that officially?"

"Loki Laufeyson." They shake hands for too long and then take their hands back after untangling them.

"My last name's Barton," Clint adds, since maybe it's necessary? Since Loki did?

"Yes, it is."

Silence. No, crickets.

"You always talk like that?"

"I guess it's a family thing," Loki answers slightly less formally, not without effort. Clint thinks that maybe that does make sense; from the few times he's ever heard Thor talk, he can see the similarities. Hear them, anyway.

More crickets. Clint looks out into the yard, which is composed entirely of silhouettes and shadows and sounds by now. "I told my friends I was gay today," he says after that moment. "It wasn't horrible." If he can't say anything else, then there's that, at least. "Like, Tony convinced Natasha to ask me to come with her by offering to write her science paper for her, because I'd never really gotten to telling him or, um, anyone that I was-- Yeah, we only really started being friends like a couple months ago after winter break, see. Before that I was pretty much a lone wolf, except maybe the less-- cool version..." He trails off, his doubt in himself probably more evident on his face than internally, even. He opens his mouth and then shuts it because he has no idea what the hell he's supposed to be saying without babbling, which is pretty ironic considering the fact that he doesn't babble. Except now it's "didn't". 

And then Loki's smooth expression-- facade?-- crumbles off and his face is just a raw display of emotion that Clint can't identify as any one thing. Loki mumbles a swear word and says, "I can't remember what this song is called," like he's just seen the face of god. 

"Inside?" Clint asks, because he hasn't really been listening to what Pepper's been playing, and Loki nods. Without audibly deciding to they both end up drawing close to the wall of the Starks' house-- mansion?-- where there's almost a heartbeat making the shingles vibrate but not quite; the music's not that loud. But they can hear it more clearly now. 

"So is this song your religion or something?" Clint asks, because it looks like it is. But Loki just rolls his eyes in answer and sinks to the wood floor of the porch, still rapt in his attention to the music. His sort-of-date watches him and thinks that the way he's breathing is sort of hot. Just a little bit. 

"Nah, I'm just really fond of it," he answers, and Clint sort of half-smiles because his vernacular is an odd mix of old-ish English and how everyone else talks and it's a miracle to Clint's ears, never mind what he's actually saying. Not that he's not listening or anything. He will admit, though, that it's easier to talk when he's not looking at Loki and seeing new sides and colors every time he does. "It's kind of my planning-to-take-over-the-world song," Loki says after a second, sounding pretty thoughtful for an apparent evil mastermind. So Clint just raises his eyebrows a little and sits down next to the other guy finally.

"You do that often?" he asks, and one side of Loki's mouth lifts up into a portion of a smile.

"Why wouldn't I? Maybe it's only logical that since I spend most of my time sitting on the ground that I dream of having a throne surrounding by, like-- laser sharks or something."

"Laser sharks," Clint repeats, repressing smiles again.

"Since this place can be so shitty," Loki continues. "Maybe it's only logical that you'd dream of fixing it, you know? If you were king. Or something." He shrugs. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm a potential villain, so this whole thing is probably screwed already."

"This whole thing," Clint repeats.

"Because you're heroic, aren't you? I don't know any evil characters who shoot arrows and throw discuses. Disci? The only thing you really have going for you is the boots. All the cool villains have them, if you look." They both glance down at the same time at their feet, at Clint's combat boots and Loki's battered tennis shoes. 

"Maybe we should switch," Clint says, and then, somehow, their hands are touching.

\--

Setting: Loki's usually inhabited corner of the science hallway, Midtown High School. Only, Clint's there, too, sitting next to him with one of Loki's earbuds in his own ear.

 "What's this one called?" Loki asks, since it's a Tuesday and they've sort of adopted an iPod schedule which puts today as a Clint's-music day. After the first few Clint had only played slower music because Loki found it incredibly bemusing to blast music through the wires until they split from exhaustion. And by slower, he means anything that isn't as fast as a moving race car. 

Anyway-- he has to check the screen because he always forgets this one. "'Closing Time'," he answers after, tilting the screen so that his not-date can see. "Semisonic," he adds, although that's on the screen, too. Loki nods.

"You could call it my saving-the-world song," Clint ventures, a smirk just starting to ghost his lips. And Loki just shakes his head.

 "By the time it got to the climax there wouldn't be much left to save," he says, and Clint grins wider. "You might just have to stick with me when it gets to that point." Loki turns his head so that their foreheads are almost touching. "I'll let you name one of the laser sharks," he murmurs seductively, and Clint has to break away from his gaze to properly laugh.

"Maybe we can just sit here while the world ends," he says when he's done, and something flashes across Loki's eyes.

"I'll have to make a playlist for that, too, then," he says, and then the first bell rings.

 

**Author's Note:**

> For the marvel rarepair exchange on tumblr) :1 titled after the song by the Vaccines, because somewhere in the middle of writing everything got sort of musical)


End file.
